Unverified Voracity Is Wide Open

Chaos in the old barn. Minnesota beat Indiana last night, turning the Big Ten title race from Definitely Indiana into a free-for-all between IU, MSU, Michigan, and—ugh—Wisconsin*. If you're betting that Trevor Mbakwe beasting on Cody Zeller was the key, yup: Krang had 12 rebounds, 6 offensive, and went 8/10 from the floor en route to 21 points. Zeller was 2/9.

As for that suddenly open Big Ten race, here are the contenders' closing stretches:

INDIANA: Iowa, OSU, @ Michigan

MICHIGAN STATE: @ Michigan, Wisconsin, Northwestern

MICHIGAN: @ Penn State, MSU, @ Purdue, Indiana

WISCONSIN: Purdue, @ Michigan State, @ Penn State

Michigan controls their own fate for a share; Indiana has the toughest schedule but also a one-game lead. The MSU game this weekend is probably an eliminator. Go Iowa Awesome.

Meanwhile, the Gophers also secured their place in the tournament with that win, not that many people had them anywhere near the bubble. With a closing stretch of Penn State, @ Nebraska, @ Purdue they should reach 9-9 easily, and with wins over Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan State they'll probably be in that 6-7 range.

Turns out they SEC, too. Elsewhere in good news that went down last night, Florida got beat by Tennessee and will be off the one line everywhere once people get around to updating their brackets. Michigan will move back up to a #1 at Lunardi's bracket the next time he updates it, and the Gators are only a hair in front of Indiana on Kenpom now. This would be very good if Michigan could keep that spot.

Not that I put much credence in Lunardi's brackets. He's finally managed to keep Michigan away from teams they've already played in the first two rounds, but right now Michigan is slotted with Duke and #3 Louisville. Since Michigan is presumably #5, that's only S-curve order in his deranged brain. He's got Gonzaga with one of the top two seeds, which… I mean. Come on. Gonzaga does not have the schedule strength to be a one seed. They're 10th in RPI despite their record because their SOS is 66th—84th on Kenpom, but that's not what the committee will look at—and some school in a major conference is going to get hot and swoop past them.

LOLRUS. Michigan State went the somewhat shady route with their disposal of Dan Roushar, waiting until after Signing Day to deport the guy to the NFL position job that is apparently the birthright of any crappy college-level coordinator. (At least he's not assistant to the offensive line coach.) They are about to reap a whirlwind of karma, though:

Former Ohio State offensive coordinator Jim Bollman will be taking the same position with Michigan State, according to Football Scoop. Bollman worked as offensive line coach and run game coordinator at Boston College in 2012 after spending 11 seasons with the Buckeyes and was hired by Purdue as O-line coach for 2013.

And everyone who ever heard of Ramzy Nasrallah thought "I wonder what his twitter feed looked like in the immediate aftermath of this?"

Bollman's not even a retread—he was OSU's OL coach until Tressel got canned and had one year as the head guy. He thought Joe Bauserman was basically on the same level as Braxton Miller. And OSU fans had been bitching about him for years for various OL issues from recruiting to performance. The only way in which this makes sense is if this was designed as a social media stunt.

If it's that, great job Mark Hollis. If it is Mark Dantonio's inner Oscar the Grouch overwhelming all reason, great job Mark Dantonio. Either way the forecast for Michigan State football in the near future is lots more years like this one, except with more mustache.

BONUS: Ohio State bros yukking it up about the Borges/Bollman matchup betray their Michigan obsession by not immediately going to Bollman/Greg Davis. Borges may have tried to use Denard Robinson as a dump truck, but one of the main complaints so far in his tenure is that everything is a deep ball. These guys aren't on the same plane.

BONUS II: Big Ten football programs have hired John Shoop, Jim Bollman, and Greg Davis over the last two years. To coordinate offenses, not pick out bagel toppings. I will not be breaking new rhetorical ground here by asserting this is why the Big Ten sucks. Northwestern is good at offense every year despite having no recruiting base. Take that, add draftable athletes on defense, and then find out what happens. In the worst case it looks like your offense is coordinated by… Greg Davis.

Sergei Kostitsyn (Nashville Predators) shared the same opinion as MLS players on Columbus, calling it "the gloomiest" city in the United States. For a Belarusian to label a city gloomy is saying something. To be fair, he appears to hate life in the United States in general.

Is that Mchigan fan in the Teletubby outfit also the guy who danced to Gangnam Style? It looks like it. And I think the girl who's standing next to him here is the one whose heart was taken away by his Gangnam dance moves back in the fall!

"Doesn't mean he will make it of course. There are many reasons college quarterbacks don't regardless of physical talent.

To ClearEyesFullHart, you are a football idiot. Maxwell has a cannon for an arm. He's developing touch but not fully there yet. He is accurate. Not in the category of Brees or Montana(or even Cousins in my opinion), but he's accurate enough. When you throw the ball 40+ times you're going to miss some. Some of those MIGHT even be on purpose to avoid a sack or potential interception due to good coverage.

I've watched him every game and he's improving. He had a good game agains Ohio State. He displayed good pocket poise and I believe he's getting past his first read quicker now. Hard to say if he's getting past his second with regularity. If Burbridge is better than Fowler(if not he's the worst 4* recurit ever), don't be surprised if Maxwell lights up Michigan for 300 yards if needed(it will be needed if Michigan stuffs Bell consistently as Ohio State did).

If Michigan State has a poor season(7-5 woudl be considered poor IMO) it won't be on Maxwell. "

Bollman's going to have one hell of an uphill battle for respect if the initial response to him remains. I do think at least some of the negative response towards him is unwarranted. If you listen to OSU fans, none of the success but many of the woes (not NCAA violations, though) that OSU went through while he was there are laid at his feet. I'm not surprised if he's not the most dynamic recruiter-- few coaches fit that bill. If three yards and a cloud of dust is all he can do, then who was calling the game against Michigan in 2011? And MSU fans aren't doing the team any favors by deriding him before he even sets foot on campus. If the guy isn't a world beating recruiter now, imagine how much more difficult his job will be with the Spartan fanbase already piling on about his shortcomings.

I enjoyed the sbnation link detailing transition offense. I do wish that Michigan would employ what teams like Indiana, Sparty, and Iowa do. I watch Iowa quite a bit and their PG Gessell and others are good at inbounding quickly and pushing the ball up the floor before the defense can get back. This is a good way to counteract a score by the other team; a quick punch back.